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2025 SPE Annual Conference: Adaptations

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To Carve & To Crave

Rheana Gardner

Saturday, October 11 - 3:00PM to 4:00PM
Jenkins Fine Art Center Speight Auditorium

Face lifts, nose jobs, breast implants, liposuction, collagen injections- the body in the 21st century has become endlessly mutable, and surgical alteration is now an accepted part of American culture. To Carve & To Crave is a series of self-portraits that explores the changing definitions and standards of female beauty. Having gone through cosmetic surgery at the young age of 14, I feel an obligation to myself and to women in general to reveal the harmful effects of the unattainable standards placed upon the female figure. Using myself as a symbol for the modern woman, I deconstruct and manipulate iconic masterpieces of Western art by layering text and illustrations of cosmetic surgery procedures in order to challenge society's perception of "attainable" beauty. I use a camera as a mirror for self-reflection and as a tool for social commentary. To be able to bare one's flesh means that you must embrace vulnerability, digest it and transform it into a creative force.
Each image is created in-camera utilizing a Kodak slide projector and collage. Shooting myself with chrome film and a 35mm camera to produce a slide, I project the image onto sheets of clear plexiglass; then I proceed to apply collage and paint to generate the final image. Each creation is then re-photographed with chrome film and a 4x5 camera.

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Rheana Gardner
Rheana Gardner

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